MEN Sport columnist reveals the inside story of Cesc Fabregas' transfer saga, how close United came to signing him last year and where he might end up this.

Wind back a year and Cesc Fabregas didn’t want to leave Barcelona. He was playing for his hometown club, a team he’d supported all his life. He was happy with his partner and their child, happy too to be living close to family and friends and playing with some of his best mates.

He rented a house off one, Gerard Pique, while he had his own place by the Med redeveloped.

Fabregas did, though, want to play more than he was doing. So when United expressed a serious interest and made two offers last summer, his ‘people’ were happy to flutter their eyelashes in the Reds’ direction, while publicly saying nothing for months.

United coveted his considerable talents – he could play in two midfield positions or as a centre- forward. He was the perfect box-to-box player United needed.

Their theory about going public was that Barca fans would begin to debate the prospect of him leaving. Real Madrid do it all the time. By the time Cristiano Ronaldo left Old Trafford in 2009, United fans expected it. They were used to talking about it. Barca’s president Sandro Rosell would have sold Fabregas but the sporting department of the club wanted to keep the player.

United received stacks of intelligence, including from their own players.

One who knew Fabregas well said: “When Cesc says no he sometimes means yes.”

United tired of playing a game of smoke and mirrors where two versions of ‘the truth’ appeared to exist. They never did return with a third bid and Barca’s sporting department and Fabregas got their way. New boss Tata Martino liked him and Fabregas featured in more Barca games than any other player last year.

The problem was that Barca were mediocre by their own exceptionally high standards last term and Fabregas was seen as the epitome of that mediocrity.

He played well, he’s a fine footballer, who is ultra professional. But he didn’t shine, he didn’t win big matches.

The grumbles in the towering stands grew. Some traditionalists resented him going to Arsenal and then having to buy him back for so many millions in 2011. They think players should wear Barca’s colours for free if necessary.

Such views came about when searching for reasons to criticise Fabregas.

Fans said he was an ‘English player’, they said he didn’t impact enough on games or score enough goals, that he was better amid the action and aggression of the Premier League rather than Barca’s delicate passing game, with which he struggled to fit in. The Catalans don’t see him as a long-term replacement for Xavi, as originally intended. By April, with Barca out of Europe, the club had decided that they would sell Fabregas should a substantial offer come in.

They denied it, but that was just a bargaining position. United and City knew in April that Fabregas was available. United didn’t follow up their interest like a year ago. Once bitten, twice shy.

Barcelona’s players were booed off the Nou Camp pitch when they lost the title to Atletico Madrid in the last game of the season.

There will be significant changes at the club this summer under new boss Luis Enrique. The old president resigned in disrepute after the Neymar transfer scandal, the new one knows that he can get top money off an English club for a player who isn’t overly popular – even though he doesn't want to leave.

And, given his high wages, the only clubs who could afford Fabregas are United, City, Chelsea, Real Madrid and PSG. City and PSG have to exercise caution with UEFA’s Financial Fair Play, United changed their manager and Louis van Gaal’s view on Fabregas hasn’t been publicised, but United will not entertain another run-around like last year.

That’s why Chelsea have come to the fore, given that they need to replace New York-bound Frank Lampard.

Fabregas has spent most of his career being linked with moves to other clubs.

It seems likely that this time he will be shown the door by Barca – but he may not end up at United or City, a prospect which will probably be more galling to Reds than Blues, especially if he’s to thrive at a rival club.

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